Wichita eagle., 1887-08-12

How a Rochester PHI Man Found
Financial Success-Pushing the Drill
in the valIey-Going 200 Feet Deeper.
The Flood.
Job Moses was a country boy, born some
where up about Leroy, n. Y, who drifted
into Rochester, while still in his teens, to
make his fortune. In 1862 he had made it,
and a big one, out OF patent pill that be or
some one else had invented. About that time
Oil Greek was in its glory, and the news
papers teemed with accounts of the fortunes
to be made out of oil The stories fired the
imagination of the Rochester pill man, and
he determined to try his hand at the new
source of wealth.
Upin the northern part of Mexican county,
this state, and the southern part of Cattarau-
gus county, \. Y, lies valley which was
then and is yet one of the widest and most
forsaken sections of country to be found east
of the Mississippi. Through this valley, then
given up to numbering, Charles Minot, who
used TO conduct the Erie road sometimes for
profit, but mostly for pleasure and glory, had
for some reason built branch road which
ran through Bradford-which then boosted
three houses, a blacksmith shop, a school
house and a tavern-and terminated at the
little lumber camp of Gilesville.
Job Moses looked over the field, studied the
maps and finally made up his mind that the
valley through which Minot's little railroad
ran was underlaid with one vast sea Of oil.
As time passed on he became as certain as
fate that his conclusions were right One
day he showed up in Bradford, leased some
thousands of acres, and soon had well under
way. The simple minded natives, who had
thought him eccentric from the first, set him
down as a lunatic when he told them that
the earnings OF the railroad which ran past
their door would soon be increased twenty
fold, and to this opinion they chung for many
long year.
PUSHING THE DRILL
When Moses began pushing the drill in the
valley many of the oil kings of to-day were
unknown and unheard Of John D. Rocka-
Teller, Oliver q. Payne and Bill Thompson
had not yet matured their plans. Dan O'Day
and FL. L. Taylor would have looked upon
81 900 as fortune. Peter Grace and Capt.
j. j. Vandergrift had not yet returned from
the war. Col Dyer was on farm down in
Maine. The MOBILES, now the Standard Oil
company Of Russia, were making barrels in
Pittsburg Lem and Ike Willets were cutting
logs up in Allegany county, and Charley
Young was working for them at $40 month.
The Fishers and Phillips had their fortunes to
make, while Joe Craig was not yet out of the
primer, and John McKeown was still dress
ing tools along the creek
For twelve years Job Moses, with logged
resolution, sunk hole after hole in his leases,
but with no show of oil Then he woke I'D
one morning TO find that the thousands he
had made out of pills in Rochester had van
ished into the holes he had been punching
In the woods and fields about Bradford. and
that he was poor man. Disappointed, but
not discouraged, he went to New York. and
with an eloquence born of earnestness sue
ceeded in obtaining from the capitalists who
gave him hearing money with which to
continue his search. This was in 1875. Once
back on his field Of operations new idea
struck him Up to that time he had drilled
all Of his wells only 800 feet deep, the hor-
ion at which oil was found along the creek.
Perhaps there might be producing sand
still further down. He sunk one of his wells
BOO feet deeper, and was rewarded with a
fifty barrel producer. Another and another
old the same or better story Moses had
Outiu Lie Ou ucB0 lOT WHICH he Qau so long
been searching. Every well he sunk gave
aim rich returns. The news of his success
pread abroad and the tide of oldom turned
lowly toward Brodford A year later it had
to a food, and the fact was freely
admitted that no such field had ever been
struck before. Lands which two years before
lad been almost worthless sold for more than
princes ransom But Moses had it all IN
Ter lease and was able to make his own
erms. His thirteen years of waiting netted
him millions He lives in New York now.
Enjoys life, and always has spare $50 to loan
% any of the boys who happen to get broke in
he metropolis.-Philadelp Times
Many Cinnamon nave taken 70 wife the
females who have drifted to China
own to hit the pipe or to do worse. One of
hese women was reclaimed from slavery TO
opium by her husband She had become
what is called "a fiend," which is to say, an
.bject slave to the vice. Her husband dab.
oled with the drug in the philosophical meas
lred way that most Cinnamon here do and
becoming interested in the girl ishe is young
and comelyl took her to his quarters and re-
eased her from the clutch of the demon by
.apering off her allowance from day to day.
She agrees with Capt McCullagh that the
strength of the habit is overestimated
Il smoke or don't smoke, Just as like" she !
avs, land as long as / don't drink at the |
anne time. it gets no hold upon me- A great |
many of what are called 'fends' keep drink |
ng beer between their pipes, because that |
makes the opium take hold with all its might |
Moderate opium smoking is verv pleasant |
= hen you are under the influence of the |
,rug you are just as wide awake as ever you |
we're in your life. But all care and worry |
md trouble disappear as the intoxication |
rows, and you see everything as if you were |
n day dream. No matter how bare and /
Iirty the room is it looks nice and pleasant |
All the people around you grow graceful and /
'eautful- Kind and pleasant thoughts ill |
our mind, and you would kiss your most
atei enemy if he would come and let You do
o. You feel as if you were as light as down,
nd were reclining on a cloud Of feathers.
After while. when this pleasure disappears,
-ou grow very tired and sleepy, and if you
ave smoked too much you sometimes are
lex
The Presidents Coscnmau.
noticed funny incident on Pennsylvania
venue the other day. Albert Hawkins, the
residents coachmen, is large. fine looking
egro, as black as a piece of polished an
iracite coal, and in private life is rollicking,
lily, good fellow, full of stories and wit, and
ta..p~ rLa Sta blo- ", q roar a. that ~ Il |